Physical Media Appreciation Thread

[Breadbassket]

Imagine owning something that isn't completely reliant on the Internet.

 

[Daddy's Little Kitten]

My boyfriend likes to collect DVDs and Blu Rays. Not that long ago, he came across a shit ton of them that someone was throwing away, good movies too.

People are retarded.

 

[Brenda Holiday]

Music in any physical form. Its just fun. Its nice to study the cover of a record or take out the insert of a cassette.

 

[We Are The Witches]

In my hands right now I am holding a disk like this one:


I have a bunch of other CDs that I've had for years, I think I have Crazy Taxi & other games that came in cereal boxes, from wayyyyy back then. I'm actually not seeing these right now, but I see that I have Nero Express, wow! (Not even mine, it was from some relative)

 

[The Last Stand]

Remember when buying a video game from a brick-and-mortar store would get you a disc, box art, AND a manual? Sometimes, even a poster or map. Now, they just give us sleeves if THAT.

 

[neurotardvirgin]

I'm personally double-binded between the appreciation of collecting & archiving tangible media; and the contradicting vitriolic self-consciousness/insecurity/self-hate of how spergy it is to be into media collecting/archiving.

Rebuilding & re-accumulating a collection is something I've had as a loose, possible contemplation for quite some time (as my old little LP/EP/CD/Cassette/Blu Ray/DVD bin was held onto by my ex after moving far away post-breakup - and bridges have remained burned since; with ill prospects of future mending). Beyond insecurities driven by perception & the subsequent fear of being whiffed as a mark for further hinting at 'tism (and I already hold too many outright, blaring "strikes" flagging me as such as is...) - fiscal & life constraints have gotten in the way of things as well.

 

[Hellwalker]

I never get the whole apperication of physical media in the "preservation" way. I have both videos games and movies as physical media. I collect movies on Blu-ray because it's way better than streaming. Looks better, sounds better, just better all round. Nothing more and nothing less. Video games, I collect because I like video games.

I understand that people have different reasons for the different things they do, but everytime I hear something about physical media being a source of preservation and such, they always come from the type of person who sounds like they only care that one random piece of obscure history (Like a random video game mod from the 2000's) was found from their favorite YouTuber. From fags like Mutahar who go on and on about "preservation" and "piracy is le good because it perserves games".

If these people actually care about ensuring a future for even those unremarkble things (Like archiving a random website) then they would go out of their way to do it. They would become data hoarders themselves. But they wont. They'll just let someone else do the hard work and go to them if they have something they want.

Little off-topic there since it wasn't entirely about physical media but I just fucking hate the slacktivism that surrounds perserving and archiving. Especially anything related to the internet.

 

[Mad_Dog]

This was our USB stick, back in the day

 

[Colon capital V]

It's all based and redpilled until disc rot sets in

 

[Ultrapenguin]

Yeah physical media is great, specifically when I download media to my hard drive then it's physically on there until I get rid of it or put the drive into storage.

I think people need to stop coping and admit there's nothing that great aside from maybe some music where if suddenly we were thrown back into a pre-internet age it would actually be that big a loss if it were to disappear.
Most (non-autistic) people are ok with modern videogame/movie media being digital because it doesn't have much value beyond being experienced once or twice. The worst that will happen if it were gone is that in 10 years you might be like "Oh I remember kind of liking that" then you forget about it because it's a thing on a screen and not that big a deal.

 

[Testacles Maximus]

I've got a pretty decent collection of Nintendo and Sega game cartridges. I kinda wish we still did cartridges, I always thought they were cool.

 

[Nicholas Gur]

New car this year. Aux cord is in a real fuck ass position in a tiny center console box and the bluetooth only functions for hands free calls. Functional cd player so I raided my moms old cd case. Hybrid theory skips on track 6, but other than that a pleasant experience.

 

[Hellwalker]

It's all based and redpilled until disc rot sets in

I always think to disc rot first whenever people treat disc's specifically as an arbiter of preservation. Nothing lasts forever.

But I think disc rot takes like 20 or 30 years to happen and that's enough time to keep on transferring your data. Correct me if I'm wrong on this.

 

[Whatevermancer]

I have 58 albums on CDs.
I should probably rip them into MP3s, just in case.

 

[PovertySprocket]

This was our USB stick, back in the day

My boomer dad is holding onto a huge stack of these containing important backups. In typical boomer fashion he kept the floppies but not the drive or the HDD of the computer the backups came from.

 

[Dan of Steel]

Remember when buying a video game from a brick-and-mortar store would get you a disc, box art, AND a manual? Sometimes, even a poster or map. Now, they just give us sleeves if THAT.

I've been amassing a pretty decent collection of PC big box games from the late 80s/90s/early 2000s, I have all the games already on on a HDD, but what makes it worth it for me are the manuals, feelies, and the boxes themselves. The appeal of physical media is that you actually own it, it can't be taken away from you because a megacorp's licensing contract ended. The fad of streaming was fun, but I will only buy physical shit and then torrent digital copies onto hard drives for digital copies now and forever.

 

[SigueSigueSpergnik]

It's all based and redpilled until disc rot sets in

Speaking as someone who is looking at a cardboard box containing around 60 laserdiscs that need to be dumped, this is 100% correct.

 

[#FreeRoss]

Recently I went to a record store and saw tons of VHS tapes, cassette tapes, and books. It was very interesting seeing songs and movies I know about in VHS and DVD form factors. They were used and beat up but still nice to see.

 

[Dwarf Lord]

"I want to physically own my stuff!" isn't a winnable argument in today's world.

"Streaming 4K is lower quality than real 1080p" is though. Blows my mind what people still accept as being HD/UHD from streaming services. Netflix/Disney are selling shit advertised as 4K UHD that's the same quality as physical DVDs.

 

[Patrick Bait-man]

If the idea of physical media doesn't appeal to you, you have severe brain rot. Having a disc(s) with all content loaded with the ability to play without an Internet connection is true ownership, nobody can fuck with your purchase; and what about having the media you enjoy in your hands to look at and touch isn't appealing on a fundamental human level?

On that note, the only reason I own any modern console today is because of the availability of physical media; which unfortunately disappeared from PCs over a decade ago but is still holding on with consoles. If modern consoles went all digital, I would never buy another console again.